Rule 58.Entry of judgment

Rule 58 governs the mechanical last step of a case: getting a decision onto the judgment docket. Subject to Rule 54(b)'s rules on partial final judgments, a general jury verdict, or a court decision that a party recovers only a sum certain or costs or that all relief is denied, goes straight to entry — the prothonotary enters it in the judgment docket without waiting for any direction from the Court, unless the Court orders otherwise.

Other kinds of decisions need an extra step. When the Court grants relief beyond a sum certain, or when a jury returns a special verdict or a general verdict with interrogatory answers, the Court has to approve the form of the judgment first, and only then does the prothonotary enter it.

Rule 58's third provision sets the basic rule of effectiveness: a judgment matters only once it's both set forth and entered — an announced decision that hasn't been reduced to a docketed judgment isn't yet a judgment for most purposes. Entry itself isn't held up while costs get taxed. And Rule 58 keeps drafting judgments in the Court's hands as the default: attorneys don't submit proposed forms of judgment except when the Court directs it, and the Court isn't supposed to give that direction as a matter of course.